From: piaba <piabinha at yahoo.com> on 2004.03.19 at 13:09:39(11305)hi all,

just a small question... i have a pot of Alocasia sp.
Corazon (forgot the latin species name) which had two
growing plants. one went dormant, and it's been like
that for a while. today i peeled off a bit of the top
to reveal the growing point. unfort. the top seemed
hollow and dried out and i kept peeling more, until i
broke the tip, revealing a firm and green stem. will
something grow from this stem even after i broke the
growing tip?

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From: "Derek Burch" <derek at horticulturist.com> on 2004.03.19 at 15:18:16(11306)I always peel all the dry scales off, even if they start off looking like a
normal tip. I go down until the nice green or red bud is fully exposed. I
have some slight experimental evidence from a propagation class that I
taught that these scale inhibit growth until they have been soaked for a
long time. We did the experiment for several years of classes, with
consistent results of more rapid growth from peeled than unpeeled. I never
tried making an extract of the scales, though, to see if I could inhibit
anything with them. Derek

just a small question... i have a pot of Alocasia sp.
Corazon (forgot the latin species name) which had two
growing plants. one went dormant, and it's been like
that for a while. today i peeled off a bit of the top
to reveal the growing point. unfort. the top seemed
hollow and dried out and i kept peeling more, until i
broke the tip, revealing a firm and green stem. will
something grow from this stem even after i broke the
growing tip?

tsuh yang

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Due to the requisite delay in messages posting, this may
come after a flurry of responses and be redundant. But
at this moment no one has replied, so...

In my experience with Alocasia cultivation one of two
things are likely to happen, assuming the stem of your
subject plant isn't subversively rotting from the bottom/ up
(alocasias have a nasty habit of doing that sometimes!):

1) The apical growing point will continue to expand and
develop new leaves, despite your snapping off the tip.

2) The break point was too low and a side-shoot(s) will
in time dominate and grow out.

p/s- fyi: all plants received from you many moons ago
are doing well here in the SF bay area!

piaba wrote:

> hi all,
>
> just a small question... i have a pot of Alocasia sp.
> Corazon (forgot the latin species name) which had two
> growing plants. one went dormant, and it's been like
> that for a while. today i peeled off a bit of the top
> to reveal the growing point. unfort. the top seemed
> hollow and dried out and i kept peeling more, until i
> broke the tip, revealing a firm and green stem. will
> something grow from this stem even after i broke the
> growing tip?
>
> tsuh yang

i think that's what it's going to happen. i wasn't
sure if the tuber was still there or had dried up,
that's why i was peeling off a lot of the top and
ended up breaking it. the stem is still green and
firm.

> things are likely to happen, assuming the stem of
> your
> subject plant isn't subversively rotting from the
> bottom/ up
> (alocasias have a nasty habit of doing that
> sometimes!):

my main problem with Alocasias seem to be tubers that
go dormant and then shrivel up, dry up and never come
back. just lost another A. reginula that way. not
sure what the problem is.